Bethesda at E3 2016

Bethesda held only their second ever E3 conference last night. As expected some of their biggest franchises were highlights, with games like Fallout, The Elder Scrolls and Dishonored all getting either DLC expansions or full-blown sequels.

Having successfully revived id Software’s classic Doom franchise, Bethesda opened their show with a cinematic trailer for another iD classic with Quake Champions, which looks to take the arena-based FPS into the domain of eSports. The trailer shows off some unique character classes battling in a very dark and foreboding arena. Unfortunately the game is only scheduled for PC at the moment, with PS4 and Xbox One consoles being neglected for the moment.

Fallout 4 was also showcased, with three new pieces of DLC announced for the game. The first new piece of DLC for Fallout 4 is called Contraptions (released next week), which allows you to create complicated objects like conveyor belts for your settlement. This will be followed by Vault-Tec Workshop, which allows you to create your own Vaults; and Nuka World, which is going to be the final piece of DLC for Fallout 4. Bethesda are also supporting VR with both Fallout 4 and Doom being playable at the Bethesda booth at E3. A VR version of Fallout 4 is being pencilled in for release on HTC Vive in 2017.

The much-rumoured upgrade for The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim is also a real thing, with Bethesda showing off a trailer for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Special Edition. The visuals have obviously been upgraded with better textures, a new depth of field effect and new snow and water effects. This upgrade excitingly will also allow mods to be made for the first time on console versions of the game.

A brand new reimagining of Prey was also announced with Arkane Studios, developers of Dishonored, taking up developing duty on the title. The game is set on a space station in 2032 with the player taking control of Morgan, who appears to be a test subject in a psychological experiment perpetrated by aliens.

Arkane Studios also unveiled more of Dishonored 2, with an extended look at the new world of Karnaca, where the sequel will mainly be set (although there will be levels also set in the previous game’s setting of Dunwall). The game stars new protagonist Emily Kaldwin, who is the daughter of the original game’s star Corvo Attano, who is also a playable character. They showed off some of the new abilities you can utilise including a new time travel mechanic which lets you travel back and forth in time to solve puzzles, and surprise enemies. There were also new spells like Mesmerise which allows you to distract enemies, and Telekinesis which is fairly self-explanatory.

The first piece of DLC for Doom was also announced with Unto the Evil containing three new maps: Offering, Cataclysm and Ritual. The Elder Scrolls Online is also getting an expansion, with The Dark Brotherhood DLC coming this week. One Tamriel was also unveiled, which will let players explore the whole of Tamriel right after they complete the tutorial. This will let players join up with anyone they want as they will be automatically levelled to the content of the world, which will allow players to access content they would otherwise have been locked out of until they reached the necessary ranking.

Finally a new Wolfenstein was hinted at, with something called ‘New Colossus’ appearing during the Bethesda conference. While not direct confirmation of a sequel to the fantastic Wolfenstein: The New Order, it at least confirms that a sequel is in the works. When we get to see it though is up to Bethesda.

Written by Luke K

He plays lots of videogames, now and again stopping to write about them. He's the editor in chief at Critical Gamer, which fools him into thinking his life has some kind of value.
He doesn't have a short temper. If you suggest otherwise, he will punch you in the face.